Realm Wars

Chapter 143: Seraphina

Seraphina rubbed the pink salt on her skin, followed by the sweet minty Verbana before she relaxed on the warmth of the water. Aahh~

.. .

.. .

There was silence for a moment, and only the droplets of her wet hair falling into the water echoed in the room. If Seraphina didn't hear the soft beating of Ryu's heart, she might thought she was alone.

"Hey, Ryu?"

"Hm?"

"Tell me about your mate." Seraphina prompted her head on her palms and looked at Ryu from below. "What's her name, and what is she like?"

Ryu's lips were pressed tight. "Why do you want to know?"

"I'm just curious. I mean, we've been together this far. There should be a level of trust between us now enough to know our life story."

Funny for her to say that when she was hiding something from him.

".. . Her name is Cecily, and she's my master," said Ryu after what seemed like a whole minute that the burning stares of Seraphina penetrated his back.

Her silence really knew how to pierce his edges.

"Oh! Now that is fate!"

"Hm. . ." 

"That's it?"

"What do you want me to say?"

Seraphina's face crumpled into a frown. "How did you two meet? Was it love at first sight? How did you know that she was your mate? Are their signs? What does it feel like to see your mate? Is it true that it's like finding your other half? What does it even feel like?"

Ryu was having headaches at Seraphina's barrage of questions. "Why are you interested in these things? It's not like you'll have a mate."

".. ." Seraphina couldn't react. She was caught off guard before she submerged half her face on the water, and the warm aqua muffled her words. 

She then shook her head and said, "I just wanted to know since they said that beastfolks go crazy with this mate thing." 

She then sighed and looked over the ceiling with forlorn eyes. "I don't even understand how they could fall in love at first sight with a stranger that they just met. And I couldn't understand that feeling when you don't see them or be near them. .. you'd rather die. Some say that it's romantic and often associate beastfolks as loyal because of that. .. but I think it's a curse."

There was a melancholic in her voice, and Ryu looked over at her. She was looking down at him, and her bright blue eyes were so deep that it was pulling him towards her. Her locks of golden hair were wet and dripping to his face, but neither did he blink nor look away at the beauty that captivated his sight.

Her skin was flush and enticing to the touch, while her lips were full and tantalizingly red. Ryu reached out and brushed her hair away from her face while Seraphina bent down. 

One small push and that was all it took to lose themselves at the moment, and at this exact time, Ferris's voice rang in Ryu's mind.

'Don't kiss her if you don't love her.'

Ryu pulled at the last moment, and he stood to his feet. He took a sharp intake of air and released it through his nose. "I think we should stop while we're ahead. Whatever this relationship of ours, it won't last."

And without looking back, he went out but didn't leave. He stood by Seraphina's tent with a flush face. 

He liked her. .. and he was painfully aware of it. But he had to stop because his like was different from the like he had with Cecily and Ferris. 

Scabbing his hands over his face, Ryu's head was in jumbles. He didn't even know what he was feeling anymore.

Inside her tent, Seraphina was stunned. It took her a whole minute to understand what she had done. 

"Ah. .. idiot!" she hit herself and submerged inside the comfort of the water where she found solace and peace in silence. Hugging her mermaid tail, she sighed. 

It was exhausting to pretend she was human and even more exhausting to control herself from liking Ryu. She almost made a blunder and exposed her identity about the mate thing.

She was also half, and her beast half was searching longingly for her mate while her other half had long given up.

Maybe because she wanted to find love, she was pushing Ryu to be with her? She was scared of finding out that her mate was dead or she wouldn't even see him in the first place. Then what then? What if he wasn't a beast like her? Without the mate bond, would he still love her and only her? Would she be like her father? Miserable and dying?

Seraphina bitterly smiled at herself. Ryu was right. Their relationship wasn't built for love. It was friendship. More like a sibling kind of love than anything else. And she couldn't ask for more than that.

Looking over the tent like she saw how the day turned to night. A silent song rumbled in her chest. One with longing and hope. A melody of love for a mate that she longed for but hoped never to meet.

-----

In the beast Realm. 

A short, hunched beast with large flappy ears full of piercings was checking an ethereal woman with long golden hair and amber eyes on the silken matters. 

"Enough, Hogsbeat. You may leave," she said, closing her eyes.

"But my Queen."

"No amount of voodoo or magic could heal me now." She chuckled as she had long ago embraced her impending death.

Hogsbeat looked over at the man with dark skin and white hair.

Lysander was silent for a moment before he nodded, and Hogsbeat retreated with her staff and many potions. Skulls and bones rattled with his staff as she walked out from the Beast Queen's chambers.

"Lysander."

Lysander went beside his Queen and went on his knees. 

The Queen smiled and gently caressed the scar on Lysander's eye. "My boy. .. Stop bringing in shamans and spell caster into my room. Even if you kidnapped the leader of Heaven's Realm, my death is inevitable."

Lysander closed his eyes ad rubbed his face against the Queen's cold hands. A web of emotions was spiraling behind his wall of silence.

"My Queen. .. my only existence is to make sure to find a cure for you," Lysander stood to his feet and walked out of the Queen's chambers without looking back.

"Whatever it takes."